1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game machine, a game music output method, an information storage medium, a game program distribution device, and a game program distribution method. In particular, the present invention relates to a technique for outputting music other than original music, which is suitable to maintain a player's excitement, during a period corresponding to apart of the original music, such as a beginning or ending thereof, which is unsuitable to serve as game music, so that the game becomes more attractive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Arcade game machines and game software in which game music is output and a player operates an input device in accordance with the rhythm of the output game music so that the player can enjoy the feeling of playing music or dancing, are popular. A typical example of such a device or software may include “Beat Mania™” and “Dance, Dance, Revolution™” both manufactured and sold by Konami Corporation.
In such music-oriented games, operation timing data representing timing at which player operates an input device is prepared in accordance with the rhythm of music, and operation timing gradually approaching is shown on a display based on the operation timing data. The game player operates an input device while looking at the display and listening to the music. Performance of the game player is evaluated based on the amount of difference between the timing at which the player actually operated the input device and the timing defined by the operation timing data.
In such a music-oriented game, generally, any one of a plurality of pieces of game music are desirably or automatically selected as the game advances. One game stage is completed with the selected one piece of game music, and another piece of game music is selected for the next game stage. During an interval between the game stages, introduction of the next game music piece and so on is presented on a display.
With this arrangement, however, there is a discontinuation in the music between reproductions of one and next game music pieces. This causes the player's tension to be reduced, and the player's excitement is thereby also reduced.
In order to address this problem, a desired music-oriented game is of a type in which a plurality of pieces of game music are successively output with a shortest possible interval so that a player be able to stay excited. This type of music-oriented game machine, however, still has the following problem.
That is, many of the recent music-oriented games use general popular music and so on as game music. Such music often contains, at the beginning or ending thereof, a part with a slower tempo or smaller volume. Such a part is unsuitable to serve as game music to keep a player excited. Therefore, even though a plurality of pieces of game music are successively output with a shortest possible interval to ensure the shortest possible period with discontinued game music, the player's tension is still reduced at the beginning or ending of each game music piece. Moreover, this problem is not limited to a music-oriented game only.
In view of the above, achievement of an arrangement in which music suitable to keep a player excited is reproduced overlapping with or instead of a part of original music, such as the beginning or ending thereof, which is unsuitable to keep a player excited, would enable not only music-oriented games but also other types of game machines to be made more attractive.